The Org

by Ray Fisman and Tim Sullivan (Twelve)

Office life is notoriously spotted with inefficiency and indignity, yet, as the authors of this appealing study in popular economics argue, corporations and the people who work for them have many incentives to put up with it. The most obvious reason, as demonstrated by examples from such familiar innovators as Google, Hewlett-Packard, and McDonald’s, is money, and the challenge for organizations “is to convert group identity into higher profits.” In exploring that end, Fisman and Sullivan take on the seemingly thankless task of defending ballooning C.E.O. compensation, office meetings, management consultants, and “bean counters and compliance personnel.” The book also considers non-profit organizations—including the U.S. Army and the United Methodist Church—and reaches a sensible, if uninspiring, conclusion: that institutional success emerges from a compromise between bureaucracy and individual freedom. ♦

Sign up to get the best of The New Yorker delivered to your inbox every day